University of North Carolina Athletics
Turner's Take: Get To The Good Stuff
April 14, 2016 | Baseball, Featured Writers, Turner Walston
By Turner Walston
A practically giddy Mike Fox scampered up the dugout steps to meet with reporters after Wednesday's game against South Carolina at Charlotte's BB&T Ballpark. He was met with a question from a young writer. “You guys started out 18-2, you've gone 5-7 in the past 12 games, struggled a little bit in conference,” the writer began –Fox started rolling his wrist as if to say 'wrap it up'– “how could a win like this . . .”
“Get to the good stuff,” Fox said.
And so we will. As much as we'd like, let's not blow Wednesday's 15-0 win out of proportion: it was a single, non-conference, midweek game. Neither team's Friday night starter took the mound, and both teams have important road series beginning tomorrow. But the Carolina team that took home the resounding victory can take a lot of momentum into the back half of the conference slate.
“It's got to give us a little shot of confidence [from] the way we've been playing, especially Hunter (Williams) going out there and dominating like he did, and us getting so many two-out hits and finally driving in some runs when we were given the opportunity there.”
For Carolina's first regular-season meeting with South Carolina since 2004, the Tar Heels handed the ball to sophomore left-hander Hunter Williams. Game three of Charlotte's Collegiate Baseball Series drew 10,205 fans, the largest crowd to witness a college baseball game in the state of North Carolina, and it was a big stage for Williams, making just his fourth start of the year.
“Obviously you're not going to just forget about 11,000 people here,” he said. “I used it to my advantage. I like being in front of that many people; it kind of gets me going and obviously you can't think about it when you're out there. I just tried not to let it bother me.” Williams relaxed prior to first pitch by playing Connect Four in the clubhouse, then went out and connected 6 1/3 shutout innings, scattering six hits, allowing a single walk and striking out four. “I was just trying to pound the zone,” Williams said. “I was just going right at them.”
Williams struck out two and got a fly-out in the first. “I felt like I was getting down the mound really well, my release felt good, so I just tried to keep repeating, repeating, repeating, and it turned out to help me a lot,” he said.
Then, after his only walk of the day, Williams induced a double play to end the second. “That really fired me up,” he said. “Always, having a double play to end the inning is huge.”
Between innings, Williams retreated to an empty corner of the dugout, sitting alone and gathering himself to go back out to the mound. “After that good first inning, I'm superstitious, I try to just keep everything the same, and that's what I did,” he said. “I just sit there and root for my team.”
Both teams were scoreless through three frames, but the Tar Heels got something going in the fourth. Brian Miller and Adam Pate walked to lead off, but then Tyler Ramirez struck out and Logan Warmoth flied out. So Carolina had runners at second and third with two down.
Let's pause here to talk briefly about how BB&T Ballpark rolled out the red carpet for this college baseball game between North Carolina and South Carolina. If you'll indulge me, let me modify that to say that BB&T Ballpark rolled out the garnet carpet. South Carolina was in the home dugout Wednesday night, and they got the full home-team treatment. That is, their walkup songs, rally audio cues and video board graphics.
And so we return to the action, with the video board pleading for 'D-Fence' as Carolina senior infielder Eli Sutherland strode to the plate. Sutherland is 5'9 and 170 pounds, an unassuming ballplayer. But they don't call him the Toy Cannon for nothing. He smoked a three-run double to left-center to plate the game's first three runs. He hit it to D Fence indeed.
“Getting those three runs was huge for us, for our confidence,” Ramirez said. “And then Hunter going back out there and getting a zero for us, that was big, and then obviously we can just relax and play like we want to play after that.”
The Tar Heels would score three more in the fifth. By the time the Tar Heel fight song played through the stadium PA, the underdogs were on top.
“Eli's swing of the bat certainly just kind of opened the door a little bit and got us the lead,” Fox said. “And then after that it's just taking advantage of walks and somebody finding a hole, and then here it goes. That's kind of how hitting is. It's predicated on who they run out there as well as us, so we just had everything going tonight.”
Carolina sent 11 men to the plate in the seventh inning, scoring five runs and putting the game away. Williams handed the ball to Spencer Trayner, who finished the seventh, and Taylor Sugg worked around a hit and a walk to strike out the side in the eighth.
In the ninth, powered by reserves like Mooresville's Josh Ladowski, Carolina put up four more runs to set the margin at 15. Then, fifth-year senior Chris McCue came on to close things out. McCue, a Charlotte native and graduate of Ardrey Kell High School, was a key bullpen weapon on the Tar Heels' 2013 College World Series team. Since that time, however, he has been sidelined by thoracic outlet syndrome, and continues to work his way back to confidence. After a four-pitch walk to open the ninth, McCue struck out the side with his devastating changeup. “That was great,” Williams said of McCue “I always love watching him pitch. His changeup is so nasty. It's one of the funnest things to watch.”
For Tar Heel fans, Wednesday's game itself was certainly fun to watch. Again, it's a single game, but the Diamond Heels now take confidence and momentum into the weekend's matchup with Virginia in Charlottesville. Wednesday, the Tar Heels exhibited their potential, what they're capable of when hitting (and pitching, and defending) on all cylinders. On a big stage, the win over South Carolina was a total team effort, and one that could pay dividends down the road.
“This is just one of the games when we needed to get the two-out hits, those big hits with runners on base and we got that tonight,” Ramirez said. “It's good to get going, and then I think we can carry that into Friday night for sure.”
Friday night and beyond, one hopes. Let's get to the good stuff.
